CLASS NOTES Bruce Roberts, known as Fr. Augustine, is a Catholic monk missionary in Argentina. He is one of the few remaining founders of the first Trappist monastery in South America. His time is spent in spiritual counseling of monks, nuns, and many male and female guests and visitors. He is a childhood friend of Mariel “Guppy” Gilbert Kinsey, who was Northfield’s class president in our senior year. She is a widowed grandmother living in a cottage in a small village in western Massachusetts. • As for me, Gene and I enjoyed our three-week stay in Massachusetts in May and June. We had not been back in five years after selling our cottage on Lake Maspenock in Hopkinton. Two days after turning 12, our eldest greatgrandson, Daniel, traveled from California to North Carolina to compete in a National Outlaw Kart Race. He was champion in his Box Stock class. At the Garbervillle Rodeo in California, our 6-year-old great-grandson, “Buck” (Stephen III), wanted to compete in the California riding competition. When the class was cancelled due to lack of calves, he entered the steer-riding class. Unbelievably, he finished in second place. • I thank all returning alums for coming to our 65th, and appreciate the support from all—especially the guys for accepting me as their secretary. I will do my very best. Please keep the news coming. You should receive this just before the holidays. Hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. Go, NMH ’50!
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Northfield Pat Mccormick Hoehing sylv.snail@bex.net
I am sitting here on a delightful June day pondering our 65th reunion in 2016. I hope at least a few of us can get together to enjoy the ambiance of NMH, renew friendships, and share memories. • Judy Ives Hubbel: “Settled in Richmond, Va., the first of November 2014. Enjoying the area and being near son Pete and his wife. My husband, Ed, went into the hospital right after Thanksgiving [last year]. After rehab and living in a memory unit, he passed away on 4/23/15. Adjusting to life without him after over 55 years.” Ed was one of our class “spouse adoptees” who faithfully attended reunions, adding to the fun. • We were saddened to read of the death of Sally Curtis. She arrived at Northfield School for Girls in 1948, our sophomore year. Sally was also our adopted class teacher for many years. Even at our 60th reunion in 2011, she was able to call us by name and refer to past events we were involved in. Love you, Sally! • Please keep in touch and consider our reunion in 2016. Remember, “old agers” are free!
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Mount Hermon Frederick W. Miller fwcemiller@sbcglobal.net Bruce Heald writes, “We moved to Hen-
derson, Nev., from Roseville, Calif., in June 2005. We are happy in this part of the country and expect to stay for the duration.” • Tom
Kepler told us, “I have been having some trouble with [my] gait, and with selecting the right words for what I would like to say. I still write as usual, which I always relied on. My wife, Patricia Budd Kepler, was a national figure with the Presbyterian Church. The two of us share responsibilities at a small church in Waltham, Mass., but she does most of the work. Son Tom has an immunology lab at Boston University, and his kids are now getting degrees at the University of Tennessee and at Harvard. Son Jim had a heart attack two years ago, is a contractor in Maine, and has kids at the University of Western Montana, University of Southern Maine, and at community college. Son John, an engineer in the Boston area, has daughters at Smith College and Lexington High School.” • Jack Bogan reports from Palo Alto, Calif., “Please add my name to the list of military heroes. [In] my freshman year at Yale, our frosh cross-country team beat varsity, and I majored in track, minored in engineering, flunked calculus, and lost my scholarship. The following spring found me in Montana working for the county surveyor in Great Falls. I got drafted and was put to work in Fort Dix. When I volunteered for Korea, I was shipped out as a surveyor. Half my tour was spent in the field and half in the Eighth Army HQ mapping office. Because [Hermon coach/ teacher] Fred McVeigh had made me a French linguist, I spent the last two months of my tour setting up the logistics for lots of French military maps. Then I got out, came home, and spent six years on ‘ready reserve,’ praying that no one would remember that I was once America’s leading authority on French military maps of Vietnam. I retired from Landry & Bogan Theatre Consultants at age 75, I rewrote and improved my automatic seat staggering and drawing app for my successors, then a single-handed garage conversion and kitchen extension and remodel.” • Jack Hesse wrote, “After my wife, Catha, and I moved into this convenient Wellesley Hills (Massachusetts) apartment house, two of the persons whom we met were Gil Aliber and his lovely wife, Phyllis. I noted to Gil that his ‘name struck a memory bell’ and that’s when the recollection went back 63 years to the hill. Gil is an extremely well-liked person here, with a great perspective on life. I am enjoying getting to know him all over again. In addition, I have a granddaughter at NMH, Olivia, in her junior year. Before attending NMH, she was a squash and tennis player, but has now become a member of the girls’ varsity crew, on which she is the coxswain.” • Head of School Peter Fayroian and Allyson Goodwin ’83, chief advancement officer, visited with NMH alumni and parents in early June at the home of Shannon and Joel Weinberger in Hinsdale, Ill., to discuss the school’s strategic plan. Frederick W. Miller, and his wife, Carol, attended the 60-year reunion of his graduation class from Hillsdale College in Michigan.
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Northfield and Mount Hermon Julie Taylor Clemens jtclemens@cs.com • Bruce G. Holran bruceholran@comcast.net
Plans for the 19th mini-reunion of the NMH class of ’52 are evolving. Due to the inevitable aging process and the loss of our classmate Ian Walker, it has been decided that October 16–18, 2015, will be a “work-free weekend.” Most of the meals will be at the Greenfield Country Club and lobster will be on the menu at least once! There will be a report of the gathering by late October or early November through the NMH Communication line to the class. Watch for details in a letter from Mel Smith. • Shirley Bryant Mitchell wrote after the death of John Cannon in November 2014: “He had been fighting numerous cancers for some time. There was a memorial service in February in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he spent much of his life as an Episcopal priest.” Shirley, John’s “significant other for 10 years,” said that both classmate Nancy Stuart Philippi and she attended the service and had lunch with Shirley’s daughter, Diana Mitchell ’81. • In response to news of Nancy MacKay Glerum’s death, Sue Steadler McElwain wrote that she and Nancy had spent some time together as two married couples and kept in touch with annual holiday letters. She knew that the Glerums had moved to a retirement community in Portland, Ore., but was unaware of health problems and wondered why no letter came this last Christmas. The news of Nancy’s death was unexpected and sad for Sue. Her more joyful news was that her daughter was married at age 48 at the Naval Academy. • The NMH Magazine spring issue listed recent deaths in our class, and included Sheila Schechtman Weinberg (1/1/15). Does anyone have more news or memories to include in a future communication? • Good news from Marcia Ottey Raushenbush: she was given a “clean bill of health” after several breast cancer treatments in 2014. This enabled her to enjoy the special bike/barge trip in France for her family of 15, followed by a cruise in Croatia with John. • Both of the class teachers of NFSG’s class of ’52 have now died. As you know, Anne Webb Burnham died in 2014, and we have learned that Sally Curtis died (9/11/14). Both the NFSG Newsletter to the women who had been her students and NMH Magazine had long articles about this outstanding teacher. She was a demanding math teacher, but had a sense of humor. She died at 92 after a long, full life. • Diana Armen Cowles relays that the New York Times did a spread about the famous fire at MH in 1965. It seems that it included an iconic picture of a major football rivalry between Mt. Hermon and Deerfield, which continued despite the fact that behind the players the science building was going up in flames! • Let’s keep informed and in touch with each other! There will be news from the
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